Word: parliament
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...With candidates like these, it's easy to forget that the European Parliament shapes Europe's policies on vital issues like climate change, banking rules and immigration law. Yet when elections roll around every five years, the august body can feel like a free-for-all for fringes, freaks and fanatics. (See pictures of how climate change is affecting Europe...
...Between June 4 and 7, some 375 million Europeans will be entitled to cast votes to elect a new, 736-member Parliament. However, a survey earlier this year found that only 34% of eligible voters are likely to do so. This apathy spurs the rise of the mavericks: since most Europeans still do not know who their MEPs are or what they do, they use their votes instead to punish incumbents. (Read "Why So Few Care About the European Parliament Elections...
...Voters think the stakes are lower than in national elections - or, at any rate, less clear," says Hugo Brady of the Center for European Reform think tank. "Moreover, the Parliament can often seem distant because few voters know what it actually does. And even if they do, the areas where the Parliament exercises most influence seem technical and dull...
...mainstream parties are outflanked, they often have themselves to blame. In many countries, the European Parliament is seen as a Siberia for politicians whose day is done in the national arena - hence the decision by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to send his glamorous justice minister Rachida Dati to the assembly because of her high-handed management style and the gossip surrounding her clothes and private life. (See pictures of Sarkozy...
...mainstream parties are also victims of the technical and consensual nature of the E.U. itself. Voters are turned off by the process-heavy, nonadversarial way in which the Parliament operates: there is little difference among the policies proposed by the three biggest groups, the conservatives, liberals and socialists. In the current downturn, they are all seen as having fallen asleep at the wheel while the economy went sour...